Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, and Robert Venturi, FAIA, were announced the winners of the 2016 AIA Gold Medal Award.
The award, voted on by the AIA’s Board of Directors, is the highest award the association can offer to an architect, and it “acknowledges a significant body of work that has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture,” according to a statement.
Scott Brown and Venturi, a team that has been married since 1967, have influenced up-and-coming architects over the years through their built work and writings.
Some notable projects that their firm, VSBA Architects and Planners, have worked on are the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, the Provincial Capital Building in Toulouse, France, the Seattle Art Museum, and buildings for several universities, including Brown, Ohio State, and Yale.
Venturi wrote the book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966, and worked with Scott Brown and architect Steven Izenour on Learning from Las Vegas in 1972. The pair also wrote Architecture as Signs and Systems: for a Mannerist Time in 2004.
“This recognition will resonate with generations of architects,” 2015 AIA President Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA, said in a statement. “What Denise and Bob have done for the profession far exceeds the completion of a great building or two. Through a lifetime of inseparable collaboration, they changed the way we look at buildings and cities. Anything that is great in architecture today has been influenced in one way or another by their work."
The duo has won 17 state and local AIA awards and nine national AIA awards. In 1991, Venturi won the Pritzker Architecture Prize but Scott Brown was excluded; they sought to have Scott Brown honored retroactively in 2013. They will receive the 2016 Gold Medal at the AIA convention in Philadelphia in May.
Related Stories
| Sep 17, 2013
NCARB convenes special task force to explore additional pathways to architectural licensure
Potential new pathways to architectural licensure are being explored through the work of a new Licensure Task Force launched by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Led by NCARB Immediate Past President Ronald B. Blitch, FAIA, FACHA, NCARB, the group held its first meeting at NCARB offices on September 6-7 in Washington, DC.
| Sep 17, 2013
SMPS Foundation announces new business development research book
The SMPS Foundation has released its latest research book, A/E/C BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – The Decade Ahead.
| Sep 17, 2013
Healthcare project will merge outpatient clinic with YMCA to promote wellness and prevention
Penrose-St. Francis Health Services and the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region announce collaboration, along with developer The Boldt Company, to create next-generation wellness facility.
| Sep 17, 2013
AIA sees uptick in architecture billings for August
AIA's Architecture Billings Index was 53.8 in August, up from 52.7 the previous month, signaling increased demand for design services nationwide. The West and Northeast regions saw the biggest ABI gains last month.
| Sep 16, 2013
Does brainstorming work?
The idea-generating process known as brainstorming has come under some intense fire recently. Critics contend that it suspends much-needed criticism and conflict while suppressing the creative ideas of introverts.
| Sep 16, 2013
Forty-three percent of energy leaders will invest more in efficiency next year (infographic)
Forty-three percent of energy leaders say their investment in energy efficiency next year is projected to be more than it was last year, according to survey results released today by Schneider Electric. Twenty-two percent said their projected investment would stay the same, and 10 percent reported their investment would be less than last year.
| Sep 16, 2013
Forty-three percent of energy leaders will invest more in efficiency next year (infographic)
Forty-three percent of energy leaders say their investment in energy efficiency next year is projected to be more than it was last year, according to survey results released today by Schneider Electric. Twenty-two percent said their projected investment would stay the same, and 10 percent reported their investment would be less than last year.
| Sep 16, 2013
Construction spending hits four-year high in July: AGC report
Total construction spending hit a four-year high in July as private residential and nonresidential activity increased while public spending declined, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials urged lawmakers in Washington to make infrastructure investment a top federal priority before funding runs out at the end of September.
| Sep 13, 2013
Loews Hotels & Resorts announces major cross-portfolio upgrades
Loews Hotels & Resorts is currently in the midst of a major growth and property redesign initiative, reflecting a strong national trend in hospitality renovation.
| Sep 13, 2013
Video: Arup offers tour of world's first algae-powered building
Dubbed BIQ house, the building features a bright green façade consisting of hollow glass panels filled with algae and water.